Let It Snow On a Winter Wonderland
by k4writer02
Summary: On Christmas Eve, Chakotay and B'Elanna go on an away mission. CT romance ensues


Title: Let It Snow on a Winter Wonderland  
  
Author: Kate, k4writer02@yahoo.com  
  
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Paramount in any way, shape or form, nor do I own Star Trek Voyager or the characters mentioned in this story. I am not making a profit.  
  
Archiving: POV, of course, anyone else just ask!  
  
Author's Notes: First, thanks to Briana, who graciously acted as my beta reader. I really appreciate your input. Thank you, Briana!  
  
Response to the weather challenge and the holiday challenge.  
  
Here are the requirements, as listed in emails from the chakotaytorres yahoo group  
  
Weather: Chakotay is a moderate temp guy ("Tattoo" - "...where it's so hot.") And B'Elanna loves warm/hot weather? ("Displaced" - "...and we can be warm while we're NOT doing it.") The situation: they both get stuck someplace where it's frigid and they both end up complaining about their situation. Maybe...it's an away mission? Shore leave gone wrong? How do they make the best of it? And most importantly, how the heck do they stay warm??  
  
Holiday: Write a C/T holiday story (that means Christmas, Channukah, Kwanza,  
  
whatever it is that you celebrate this time of year) that includes  
  
x- a romantic Chakotay. I'll leave it up to the author to determine  
  
what this means.   
  
x- snow and a snowball fight. 'Cuz I'd like to see one. lol  
  
x- Mistletoe.  
  
x- a reference to Santa Claus.  
  
x- this line: "I hate being cold."  
  
Background for my story: This is AU, early Voyager (think season 3, up to and including Worst Case Scenario). Please be flexible. I try to be as correct as possible with details, but to err is human.  
  
It is December 24th, by the old Earth calendar. To most of the crew, that means Christmas Eve. Even the non-human non-Terran crewmembers are planning to celebrate Christmas.  
  
The festive mood is enhanced by the fact that Voyager met a friendly species, traded with them, and is fully stocked and fueled for the first time in a long time. However, the ship detected a dilithium source a little off course. Voyager continues trading, but send a shuttle crewed by B'Elanna and Chakotay on a quick little away mission to pick some up. It's supposed to be routine, but no Voyager away mission has ever been routine.  
  
~~~~ "Chakotay, I don't think the Sky Spirits like you anymore." B'Elanna teased her friend, as she picked through the rubble of items that the roughing landing had shaken loose in the shuttle. "I mean, how long were you the best pilot the Maquis had? And how many times have we crashed since you started driving shuttles out here?"  
  
"Your support is overwhelming." Chakotay told her dryly. "Help me find the spare medkit. I want to put it in my pack, along with the freeze dried food."  
  
"Spare?" B'Elanna asked, looking up from busily packing her own pack.  
  
"Every time we crash-," Chakotay stopped as B'Elanna glared. He sighed. "Ok, every time I crash one of these things, someone can't find a medkit. I put four in the shuttle, just in case."  
  
"You're paranoid. We didn't even crash. We landed."  
  
"Is that what it's called when you control the descent of approximately a ton of metal against wind sheers of sixty miles an hour to rest on a shelf of ice? With the engines at 40% efficiency because of the extremity of the temperature?"  
  
"Oh come on, you're not taking me seriously about the Sky Spirits?" B'Elanna asked in disbelief. "You're a good pilot. We landed without scattering pieces all over the atmosphere." She smiled. "So you've had some tough luck." Chakotay gave her a glare two steps shy of evil. B'Elanna worked in silence on her diagnostic for a full five minutes. "I'm sorry."  
  
"It's fine." Chakotay said. "Don't worry about it."  
  
Awkward silence. "I got the signaling beacon going." B'Elanna finally offered. "We should go dilithium hunting. That would be a nice Christmas present to Voyager, wouldn't it?" She asked with forced cheer.  
  
Chakotay evaluated her warily. "I suppose that makes me Santa Claus?"  
  
She nodded. "I bet I could find something in the shuttle to turn your hair white." She offered.  
  
"Torres, I'm on an away mission with you. I don't need you to make it your personal mission to give me gray hair." He told her dryly.  
  
She laughed in delight. "Are you afraid of me?"  
  
"You're not supposed to be making the best of this." He gestured vaguely, and she wasn't sure whether he meant his company, the shuttle, the planet, the weather, or the work right before her holiday. "You're supposed to be ranting while I placate you."  
  
B'Elanna smacked the console. "Try environmental controls now."  
  
"What was that?" Chakotay asked, trying a code sequence.  
  
"Old engineer's stand-by. If it doesn't work, hit it."  
  
"If it still doesn't work?"  
  
"Hit it and swear at it."  
  
"Then?"  
  
"Pull out the duct tape." B'Elanna said cheerfully. "Cause if you hit it twice, if it wasn't really broken before, it is by then. Or it should be."  
  
Chakotay laughed. "Was that the secret to keeping Liberty in the air, even with my piloting?"  
  
"The secret there was spit, bubble gum, and prayers."  
  
"Prayers?" Chakotay turned away from his console to look at her. His breath misted in the air. "Didn't think you were the type."  
  
"Not me." B'Elanna flashed him a smile. "You. Gerron. Dalby. Ayala."  
  
"Dear Sky Spirits, please don't let us crash. Let us live to fight another day?" He joked.  
  
"More like, "Please give the crazy woman whatever she wants so she doesn't kill us all."  
  
"In the Maquis, as long as you kept four systems operational at any one time I figured I was getting more than I had any right to expect." Chakotay teased, but there was pain in remembrance.  
  
"I always gave you at least five systems." She corrected. "Waste processing. Engines. Shields. Weapons. Showers."  
  
"I understood the first four, but I know a few crewmembers who would've put replicators before showers."  
  
"They don't have Klingon sense organs. Being around thirty other unwashed humanoids would've put me in a really bad mood."  
  
Chakotay bit his tongue and refused to make a gratuitous reference to her infamous tussles with Bendera whenever one or the other got his or her temper up.  
  
She tucked her hair behind her ear. "And the Vulcans would've agreed with me."  
  
"I don't think it's going to get much warmer in here." He told her in a resigned tone. "I've got standard issue Starfleet winter gear with the medkits if you want to go dilithium hunting."  
  
"We'll leave a message for Voyager encoded with the beacon?"  
  
"Extracting the ore shouldn't take long." Chakotay agreed. "Should we bring the camping gear?"  
  
"Why?" B'Elanna shrugged. "We calculated orbit. Nightfall shouldn't happen for at least six and a half hours. Thanks to precision flying worthy of a maestro," She saluted mockingly. "We should be 700 meters from the strongest source of dilithium in the next three star systems." She beamed. "I do believe in Christmas." She declared, with too much joy for sarcasm and too much cynicism for sincerity.  
  
He shook his head in mild disbelief. "I can't remember the last time I saw you like this."  
  
"I can't help it. I like Christmas. She looked out the window. "I even like snow at Christmas."  
  
Chakotay stopped assembling the pack to look at her. "I thought you HATED the cold."  
  
"I do. I hate being cold." She agreed readily. "But I'll put up with it for one week of each year, from December 24 to January 1."  
  
"What about snow?" He smirked. "You used to say snow was just fine, as long as you were inside with a spiked raktajino, looking out at it. Then, you could close the curtains and hibernate till everything melted and it was safe to go outside again."  
  
"Your memory is too long." She said. "I'm in a good mood. It's Christmas Eve. Harry replicated a tree for my quarters. We're going to decorate it tonight, with Tom and Kes."  
  
"You're willingly spending time with Paris and Kes?" Chakotay asked.  
  
"It's Christmas. And she talked to me before they started going out."  
  
"What?" Chakotay almost did a double take.  
  
"Remember when she time traveled and saw the future? Well, she saw that she loved Tom and he loved her and they got a chance together because I died. She warned us about the people who were going to kill me, but she wanted the life with Tom. She asked if I minded. I decided I didn't."  
  
Chakotay knew better than to challenge stubborn B'Elanna.  
  
"When they leave, Ayala's coming over and we're going to reminisce a little and drink some of cider we stashed after the last away mission in memory of the Maquis at home, and the ones we lost out here." She sobered. "After Insurrection Alpha, a lot of people are remembering how much we meant to one another. I don't think anyone wants to take over the ship." She reassured him. "It's thirty of us to more than a hundred Starfleeters. We've blended and melded, but that program forced us to remember that we used to be separated."  
  
Chakotay sighed. "It's not easy-balancing personal identity and crew unity."  
  
B'Elanna agreed, then continued discussing her plans for the evening. "The engineering staff and Maquis are invited for a little something." She tweaked something with her scanner. "That is, if we get back in time. After this mission, I don't have to worry about Engineering. Diagnostics are not only acceptable, they're almost optimal. We have backup supplies of everything. Truth be told, the only thing that would make me happier would be a complete overhaul of all ship's systems."  
  
Chakotay coughed, as if to say 'yeah right, you'd let anyone else touch your ship.'  
  
She ignored him as she tightly cinched the pack of provisions. "Carey's in charge, but he has Vorik breathing down his neck, so I'm not too worried." She was almost petulant as she spoke. "We are ridiculously over-packed for this mission."  
  
"I am not leaving this shuttle unprepared." Chakotay said. "You're trying to pull fate on our heads by talking about how good everything is."  
  
B'Elanna made an impolite Klingon hand gesture. Chakotay wasn't sure if the spirit of the gesture were directed at him or at fate in general, but he made an ancient sign against evil on his chest. "You have a tricorder?" He prompted.  
  
"I know my job." She snapped.  
  
"Tricorder, check. Medical tricorder? Dermal regenerator?"  
  
"Part of the medkit." She said.  
  
"You're carrying one?"  
  
"You have one."  
  
"We should both have them." Chakotay said.  
  
"What's with you? You're jumpier than an officer in training on his first command. You haven't double checked equipment since Dalby's phaser malfunctioned that time we broke into the Cardy weapons depot."  
  
Chakotay sighed. She sounded annoyed, but she was competent and call that into question was insulting. Underlying the annoyance was genuine concern. "Something feels off." He confessed. "I try to follow my head, but my gut's telling me that there is something WRONG here."  
  
B'Elanna evaluated him. She trusted Chakotay. She respected him as an officer and her best friend. He had amazing instincts that had saved them numerous times in the Maquis. Unfortunately, since merging with the Starfleet crew, he had consistently shut down his instincts to focus on the logic demanded by Starfleet discipline and Kathryn Janeway. She didn't want to live through the consequences of something too strong to ignore. As far as B'Elanna was concerned, if he said something was wrong, it was wrong. "Okay." She said. "We don't need the dilithium that badly. We have backups. We can just go back to Voyager now."  
  
"What, tell the captain we didn't even try to get the dilithium because I had a bad feeling about it?" Chakotay shook his head. "And can't you picture Ayala? He'd laugh me off the ship. I'd have to do things 'The Maquis Way' for at least six months to get any respect from Dalby. I'm getting a headache thinking about it. No, I'll just be jumpy the whole time. We should eat."  
  
"Okay." B'Elanna said, feeling like part of a team rather than a subordinate. It had been a while since he confided in her. "Let's do a gear check first. I'll look over your pack, you look at mine. Anything's missing, ask about it. And remember, if we lose one pack, two have to be able to survive on the other."  
  
"Cute." Chakotay told her. "Glad that you remember that little speech." He had given it on more than one occasion, when she left behind food and medicine in favor of tools and scanners.  
  
"Cute?" She asked, offended. "As far as I'm concerned, that speech should go in the manual for away missions. Right before the full listing of Murphy's laws and their correlatives."  
  
Chakotay laughed. "Engineering in-service?"  
  
"Now that's motivational speaking." She fired back, reveling in the camaraderie. "Chakotay, where did you find this?" She dangled the item in question in front of him. She rotated it in her fingers so she could see it from every angle.  
  
"You know what it is?" He asked.  
  
"Sue was considering splurging her replicator rations on one. As punishment for spending her duty shift daydreaming, I made her explain the significance of a parasitic weed wrapped in ribbon to Vorik." B'Elanna informed him.  
  
Chakotay pulled out two prepared meal packets and split them open. He shook his head. "That's not by the book discipline." He emphasized the word discipline, because in officer training, the curriculum had spent a considerable amount of time exploring the differences between punishment and discipline.  
  
"By the book only works when you use the book." She shrugged. "I use the book when I have to, but I know when I have to."  
  
"I didn't hear that." Chakotay said. He handed her the bag of nutrient enriched powder. "If the first officer heard that the Chief Engineer used Starfleet protocol selectively."  
  
"Saying stuff like that is what scares Ayala and Dalby and the others. When you talk like that, they think you're not angry any more. They think you're giving up on the cause, that even if we get back to the Alpha Quadrant you'll go back to Starfleet instead of the Maquis."  
  
He flinched.  
  
"And you of all people know how much restraint it's taken to accept as much Starfleet protocol as we do." They began to eat their meal of prepackaged freeze-dried nutrient-enriched white dust.  
  
Chakotay made a face, remembering instances that she and the other Maquis had not shown restraint.  
  
"Gerron doesn't wear his earring on duty. Henley leaves the headband in her quarters, even though it irritates them both." B'Elanna pointed out. "They're on time to duty shifts and we don't gamble more than anyone else on board."  
  
Chakotay raised an eyebrow, and tried to choke down a mouthful of powder.  
  
"It irritates them. The headband is just adornment, but the earring has deeper spiritual connotations for Gerron. Like your tattoo." She looked at his face. "But you get to wear your face everyday. They just wait to be off duty."  
  
Chakotay frowned, thoughtful. He hadn't expected insight to the crew from Torres. She was his friend, but he knew her strengths and her weaknesses. Her strengths were mechanical, her weaknesses social.  
  
B'Elanna misinterpreted his frown. She swallowed and defended her claim. "And look at me. I work with Vorik every day. I don't treat him differently than the rest of my staff and I don't avoid him. Some days it kills me." She said it fiercely. "My human half crumbles like a pathetic little." She hurled a derogatory Klingon word for female victim into the air. "He didn't-my body-but since that day I feel weak. Sometimes. Other times, I'm so angry I can't breathe, can't speak, can't do anything except not explode. My Klingon half can feel his throat in my hands, can smell his blood." She took a bite of food to give herself some time to get herself under control.  
  
Chakotay didn't trust himself to speak, so he chewed, and remembered how violated he felt when Seska stole his DNA. It was a different case, but on some level, he could imagine the violation she was suffering. Why hadn't he realized how she felt sooner?  
  
"The doctor is making me do therapy on the holodeck. As far as therapies go, it's about as effective as that holographic woman he programmed for Vorik." She bit her lip, sipped some water, trying to rinse the taste of the powder/poison from her mouth. "I've thought about asking Tuvok for help. Since he is Vorik's mentor, it would be kind of weird. And he's so stuck in Alpha Quadrant mode that if I admitted that I look at Vorik and see an assailant-he would transfer Vorik to another department or start treating me like a live grenade, and that's not fair. He's a good engineer. I'm professional enough to recognize that the department needs both of us." She winced. "I work with him everyday, but I get so angry."  
  
"The blood fever was months ago." He whispered, trying to suppress the anger and shame her words had provoked. Why hadn't he seen it earlier? Was he so self-centered? "Why didn't you come to me sooner?"  
  
She shrugged. "We're on the other side of the universe, so I get latitude and flexibility. I use it. If I'm a little eccentric, my staff writes it off as the crazy angry Klingon Maquis. They've seen enough of Dalby's outbursts to expect bad behavior from angry Maquis. It is better since that class." She tried to reassure Chakotay. "But it's at the point that I notice myself overreacting. It affects me. Not my job performance, not yet. But I don't want to be removed from duty, so I'm doing the responsible thing. I'm seeking effective treatment." There was defiant anger and vulnerability in her stance and tone. "If you can't help me because you're my friend, tell me and I'll find another way."  
  
Chakotay reached out to her and nodded. "First step, admitting there's a problem. You did that."  
  
She took a deep breath.  
  
"I'm honored that you trusted me enough to bring this to me." He said.  
  
"You're placating." She protested.  
  
Chakotay touched her hair, running his fingers through it. "I think you are amazing. You are my friend. Probably my best friend. I don't know what I would do without you. I don't tell you often enough how much you mean to me. I'm sorry for that, but we're going to do better."  
  
She pulled away. "You're trying to distract me." She was flushed. "Why do you have mistletoe hidden in your backpack during an away mission?"  
  
"Long story." He told her. "Very long." The unflappable officer was blushing, but there was no telling whether it was the display of emotion or her question that embarrassed him.  
  
The expression on her face said it all, but she verbalized, "I have time."  
  
"I don't want to tell you." He said.  
  
"I told you my secret." She waited.  
  
"I confiscated it." He finally admitted. "Tom and Harry were using it for no good. Just put it back in there."  
  
B'Elanna tried not to laugh. "Tom and Harry, up to no good? Who ever would have imagined?" She looked at the rations, the tricorder, the medkit, the scanner, the box for transporting the dilithium, a heavy emergency communication beacon, a tent, a blanket, several spare power sources, a space heater, rations, water, and the phaser. "You think you'll need all of this?" The pack told her more about his state of mind than anything else had.  
  
"No." He said. "But I'd rather have it and not need it than the other way around."  
  
She tucked extra socks in his pack, then replaced the first item that caught her attention. "You should come over tonight. Drink something stronger than cider with Ayala a bit. He needs it." She nestled a few "breadcrumb beacons" in the fabric. They would set the beacons along the way so they could retrace their steps, even if a freak storm blew in. She had attached five to her belt, as had Chakotay.  
  
Chakotay had stacked all her belongings in a circle around himself. "Oh?"  
  
"He misses the boys." She said. "He believed in the Maquis cause with his whole heart. You know there's no other way he would've left his sons. But now, with the holiday, he's on the other side of the universe. It's the third year in a row. He's realized that the time we've been gone is equal to Joey's age when we got thrown out here."  
  
Chakotay said nothing. Seska and that baby had brought a gaping hole in his life to his awareness. He was more sympathetic now to the crewmen who missed their young children.and to Sam Wildman, who lived on a razor's edge of appreciating her daughter and fearing for Naomi's safety.  
  
B'Elanna tugged the strings tight on the bag. "Ayala doesn't talk to me as much as he used to. He sees me as something of a time bomb, since Bendera, and Suder and Vorik's attack." She nervously tied a knot.  
  
"Ayala would talk to you. He knows how important your sister was to you. Your family. We've been out here three years. I know Voyager's a family now, but the Maquis were the first family I ever knew. Some family, right? Out of 31, we had three traitors and a sociopath." She blushed. "No criticism. You didn't know. Neither did I. I'm just trying to say that betrayal hurts, and believe me, some of them are hurting. I mean, Tuvok was a traitor and we have to answer to him. Paris is an ally, under your protection, even though he was willing to sell us out to them. Seska betrayed us twice and pretended to have your baby. Jonas betrayed us. Suder lost it totally. Hogan got killed. We lost Bendera." She choked. "Ayala's starting to feel like he's losing your friendship, that the Starfleeters are seducing you away. A lot of the others are scared too."  
  
"And you?" Chakotay asked gently. He wasn't sure if she were rambling aimlessly or purposely leading somewhere.  
  
"I know you're the same man you have always been." She said with uncharacteristic quiet conviction. Usually, she shouted her beliefs at the top of her lungs. He tested the power source on her tools. "I know you are still devoted to your principles. It's just that we're not sure where your priorities are. It's starting to freak a few people out."  
  
Chakotay looked up from her pack. "My priorities?"  
  
"Like when Seska said she was having your baby. Did you go to Ayala, who used to be your right hand, the father of three boys? Did you go to Dalby or Gerron, who know what it is to live with rape and the children of that crime? They know how hard it is to accept a child forced on you. They wanted to help you, but were afraid your temper would snap."  
  
Chakotay said nothing, but tension creased his forehead. So she wasn't just purging her emotions.  
  
Relentlessly, B'Elanna continued. "Did you talk to Chell, who used to be everyone's counselor and best friend? Going outside your old friends, what about your new ones? Say, Sam Wildman, the only other single parent on this ship? Did you come to me, a child of mixed races who knows what it's like to attempt to live two lives?"  
  
Ashamed, Chakotay tried to look away. He had thought that the memory and consequences of Seska and the child were for him to live with alone.  
  
Her eyes bored into his. "Instead of talking to any of the people who love you and worry about you, you went on a vision quest to talk to your dead father." She stood, and pulled on a Starfleet parka. "I respect your beliefs, Chakotay, but talking to spirits while the living are worried that you're going to flip your lid wasn't the best choice you've ever made."  
  
"Any more criticism?" He asked, carefully putting the medkit at the bottom of B'Elanna's pack. He debated about it, then layered in food, water, a blanket, a heater with sufficient power to melt the water, and extra warm clothing. He placed the cutting instruments and storage container on top. Hopefully they wouldn't need anything else. After a moment's hesitation, he threw an extra commbadge in her pack.  
  
He stood and pulled on his own parka. He attached his belt to the outside, checking that the breadcrumb beacons were present. He then checked that the climbing gear on his belt was in working condition. He silently held out his hand for Torres' gear.  
  
She handed it to him. "I'm not criticizing." She said. The expression on his face caused her to backtrack hastily. "I'm critiquing." His face did not change. "But wouldn't you rather know what your friends are thinking? Hear what scares them?"  
  
"Why did they choose you as the ambassador?" He asked. "Is there enough tension in this?" He snapped a rope in her direction.  
  
"That's not my climbing cable. It's for the tent, just in case."  
  
He softened. "I know, I'm jumpier than a gagh in a breakfast bowl. I'm sorry. There's something eerie about this place."  
  
B'Elanna sighed, tried to shrug off the uneasiness that he was transferring to her. "You just hate the cold."  
  
"Perhaps." He inclined his head. "But tell me, why are you the ambassador of the Maquis?"  
  
"Because I'm tactless. They knew I wouldn't beat around the bush."  
  
Chakotay honestly laughed. "Are you going to seal the shuttle?"  
  
"We haven't detected any lifesigns, but that doesn't mean what it should. The cold and the wind aren't optimal sensor conditions. We already powered down the engines. I'll leave environmental controls running just enough to make sure the door doesn't freeze, but other than that it's shut down. I'll seal it when we leave."  
  
Chakotay agreed. "How much climbing are you expecting to do?"  
  
"About a hundred meters. Little more"  
  
"Solid ice?"  
  
"Covered in snow."  
  
"Can you handle it?" Chakotay asked, staring into her face.  
  
"700 meters." She said, with false bravado. "It's less than a mile."  
  
"Torres, this is not a question from a friend. From a superior officer, can you climb 330 feet of ice, hike the rest of the way through subzero temperatures, climb into a cave, take off your gloves, harvest dilithium with nothing but a spare heater to keep back the frostbite, package the crystals, put your gloves back on, make the return trip across the plain and down the ice mountain, and into the shuttle?"  
  
"Don't make it sound like so much fun." She snapped. "I can do it. I am half Klingon, but even Klingons can survive in low temperatures, given appropriate resources."  
  
Chakotay helped her to put her pack on her back. He checked her gear one last time, then tied the straps with finality. She did the same favor for him and they set off. At first, the grim mood persisted. Neither of them like working in subzero temperatures. The ascent was arduous, but after that the ground leveled. B'Elanna closed her eyes and pretended that she had returned to Kessik and the frozen ponds.  
  
"When I was a little girl, I loved to skate." She confessed. "In that one week a year I tolerated snow and ice, of course."  
  
Chakotay laughed. Dressed entirely in white and gray Starfleet issue, she almost blended into the white of the sky and the earth. Only her face jumped out in vivid color. With her eyes closed and face upturned to the soft fat flakes, she looked like a work of art. If he were an artist, he would've called B'Elanna "Bliss." Perhaps "Peace." Maybe "Christmas Angel."  
  
The sound of a sickening smack pulled him out of his thoughts. He coughed. "What the hell?" He demanded.  
  
B'Elanna was innocently dusting her hands and smirking. Her pack rested on the crust of ice and snow. "A really big snowflake hit you." She told him. "The Sky Spirits are starting to take aim. You should throw one back at them-,"  
  
She shrieked and dodged, as he winged some snow in her direction. "Not bad for an old man." She taunted, scooping snow into her hands and tossing it at him.  
  
He grabbed snow and finally managed to hit her.  
  
She was laughing as she hurled insults, and danced around him, scooping snow and tossing it with careless grace. They wound up in a stand off, each holding a snowball, each easily able to hit the other.  
  
He was grinning, but suddenly began to cough. He doubled over. Convinced that the cold, altitude, exertion, thin atmosphere, or some combination thereof was hurting her best friend, B'Elanna dropped the snow and knelt beside him. "Chakotay?" She whispered, reaching out to remove the pack, turn him on his back and perform CPR if necessary.  
  
As repayment for her concern, she wound up on her back lying on the ice, with a face full of snow. She spluttered in outrage. "Cheater!" She accused. Her voice echoed back to her  
  
"I won." He smirked.  
  
"You cheated."  
  
"I can't believe you fell for it."  
  
"I try not to hit a man when he's down." She said. "Someone honorable taught me that. Gee, what was that crazy Indian's name?" She stood in indignation, brushing off the snow.  
  
Chakotay smirked. "It's that kind of cunning that kept us in the air. I won't apologize for it."  
  
She snorted. "I don't want you to. Why get mad when you can just get even?" There was snow in his face before he could blink. Ten minutes later, they were both exhausted and gasping. "Truce?" B'Elanna offered, panting as she struggled to breathe the cold, thin air.  
  
"Truce." He panted an agreement. He held out his hand. She took it, no tricks, and they shook. B'Elanna lifted her pack and fastened it on her back, while Chakotay used the tricorder and the most recently placed breadcrumb beacon to orient them.  
  
She followed him to a narrow aperture in the rock face of impressive cliffs. They slid into the feet first, flashlights attached to their hoods. Chakotay had pulled out the phaser, in case an animal chose to make its home in this cave. B'Elanna stripped off her pack and gloves and began to collect the dilithium. She worked quickly, but carefully. They couldn't afford to damage the dilithium, but even with the heat and light source nearby, her hands were freezing.  
  
Chakotay made a complete survey of the cavern, then started to help her package the crystals. He was determined that they would not collect more dilithium than they could carry. He set about packing the crystals efficiently. They couldn't afford to waste space in the packs.  
  
When he had finished, he noticed her shivering. She had pulled the gloves on again, but her jaw was trembling, though she did not allow her teeth to chatter. "This weather is ridiculous." She complained, as he once again checked her gear and harness. She returned the favor as he nodded.  
  
"What about the charm of winter?"  
  
"It's worn off. I'm remembering how much I hate being cold."  
  
"Let's go. We'll get back to the shuttle, take off and rendezvous with Voyager a little early."  
  
"I still think they should've moved in and taken up orbit instead of sending a shuttle." B'Elanna mumbled.  
  
Chakotay didn't answer in words, but he tugged sharply on her pack. "Making sure it'll stay in place during the descent." He smiled innocently.  
  
She made a face. "All these layers, and you know the wind is going to cut straight through and sting like anything."  
  
"Just think about the warm shuttle and the raktajino that's waiting for us." He encouraged.  
  
"Raktajino?" She asked, frowning.  
  
But either he didn't hear her, or he chose not to respond as he led the way to the shuttle. They crossed the plain without playing in the snow. B'Elanna was right. The biting wind had picked up. They descended the 300 meters of sheer ice with extra caution. Neither of them fell or scraped or broke anything. Chakotay was almost overwhelmed by the sensation of waiting for something terrible to happen, something to go wrong. And of course, it did.  
  
"Where's the shuttle?" B'Elanna stared at the place where they had left the ship. "The wind couldn't have blown snow to cover it that quickly!"  
  
Chakotay said nothing, but he readied his phaser. B'Elanna pulled out a tricorder. Her scanning led them to the edge of the ledge where Chakotay had landed the shuttle. "I don't understand. The readings say it's still here."  
  
"Look down." Chakotay prompted her.  
  
She mumbled an obscure expletive. "Did the wind blow it down there?"  
  
"No." He said. "That's why we landed down here instead of on the plain. The ice mountain breaks some of the wind."  
  
"Well it didn't take off on its own." She said, frustrated. "Did it?"  
  
"No." Chakotay said. "You sealed it, right?"  
  
"Yes I sealed it. I turned off everything."  
  
"Even environmental controls?"  
  
"Especially those." She agreed. "If we had left the power going, there's no telling if the heat it generated would've weakened the ice."  
  
"Say the replicators stayed on." Chakotay spoke into the wind. "Would that heat cause the ice to weaken?"  
  
"It could, I guess." B'Elanna said. "The replicators draw on an incredible amount of energy in order to materialize the requested item."  
  
Guilt crawled across Chakotay's face. "Let's get down there." He suggested. "We'll know more once we see the shuttle."  
  
"Chakotay, it's dangerous. What if it gets dark?"  
  
"Nightfall isn't scheduled for another hour."  
  
"Do you honestly think that two intermediate climbers can get down that," She indicated the ravine. "In an hour? It's totally uncharted. It's not worth the risk."  
  
"We'll manage." He said.  
  
"What if we get stuck halfway down, with no light?"  
  
"We can do this." Chakotay said, filled with quiet confidence.  
  
"Okay, say we do get to the shuttle. How do we get it open?"  
  
"What do you mean?" He asked.  
  
"If the replicators melted the ice enough for the shuttle to fall down a ravine, some water was probably generated. By now, the doors will be frozen over. I know we have a heat source and cutting tools and even light sources, but do you really want to expose your hands to the elements in order to get that door open?"  
  
Chakotay met her eyes. "Do you want to spend the night exposed?"  
  
"We have a tent." She said weakly.  
  
"How do you propose staying warm?" He asked. "Or getting off planet to the rendezvous point?"  
  
"Voyager will come for us if we don't make it to the rendezvous point." B'Elanna said.  
  
"Tomorrow. Maybe the day after. Do you want to live on these packs for two days?"  
  
"We could do it."  
  
"We could, but it would be miserable. The shuttle is right down there. All we have to do is get to it."  
  
B'Elanna choked back the urge to cry. She was cold and tired and miserable. "You left the replicator on for me, didn't you?" She asked, performing a gear check before they began the descent. "So I could have hot raktajino while I looked out at the snow?"  
  
"For both of us." He confessed. "I should've asked you why you were shutting down everything."  
  
"I should've checked all the systems, not just the primary ones." She sighed.  
  
"You're not angry?"  
  
"Not with you. Thanks for the thought."  
  
"Merry Christmas." Chakotay offered weakly, tugging at her harness. "Do we have enough cable?"  
  
"Yes." She said.  
  
And then they climbed. They climbed for a long, long time. It felt much longer than an hour, but within sixty minutes, they were standing outside the shuttle. B'Elanna held up the light source, while Chakotay manipulated a heated cutting tool. "Of course the door froze shut." He mumbled.  
  
She bit her tongue, and did not say 'I told you so.' "Try upping the power on the tool."  
  
"If I do that, it'll cause a feedback loop and the thing will explode in my hand." He said crossly.  
  
"Not if you exchange the second and third circuits." She argued.  
  
"This will work." He said fiercely.  
  
The wind howled, and B'Elanna concentrated on not letting her shivering affect the steadiness of the light. If she weren't so cold, if her hands were a little bit steadier, she would be wielding the tool that should open the door. But life is what it is, so she clamped her mouth shut while Chakotay struggled with the tool.  
  
Finally, thirty minutes after true dark had set in, the shuttle opened. They got inside, sealed the hatch and stripped off the winter parkas, hoods, boots and gear.  
  
Though her hands were blue and trembling with cold, B'Elanna began tapping in control codes. Miraculously, the tumble into the ravine had not damaged the shuttle too badly. Environmental controls began to hum, and B'Elanna basked in the slow increase in temperature. Chakotay cleaned the raktajino which had caused all the trouble, and spread out two bedrolls. "We shouldn't try to leave tonight." He reminded her. "There's a storm blowing in. The wind sheers would crumple the shuttle like tin foil."  
  
"We can't afford to get covered in snow." She reminded him.  
  
"Worry about tomorrow tomorrow. I brought shovels. If necessary we can clear the top, then take off."  
  
"If we can get the door open." She pointed out. "I have a bad feeling about this."  
  
"So do I. But we can't fly through a storm with winds like that, so we'll just have to buckle down and wait it out."  
  
She shivered, nodded. "So much for cider with Ayala."  
  
"So much for turkey a la Neelix." He tried to cheer her.  
  
"I thought he wanted to make mincemeat pies." B'Elanna remembered.  
  
"The captain demanded turkey."  
  
She nodded. "Eggnog." B'Elanna said. "There's going to be eggnog."  
  
"Not till New Years." He smiled. "You'll get some, don't worry."  
  
"I don't want any. Remember what it did to Tom last year?"  
  
"The very reason I confiscated the mistletoe." Chakotay smiled.  
  
"We have time for that long story now." She said. "We shouldn't sleep tonight. The heat is on very low-just enough to keep us from freezing, not enough to melt anything outside. It's not good to sleep when it's so cold. And anyway, we should leave as soon as the storm breaks."  
  
Chakotay agreed. "So an entire night together."  
  
"Talking." She said, feeling an odd twinge of regret.  
  
"We should wrap up together in the blankets to stay warm. Body heat and all."  
  
B'Elanna felt her temperature rise a degree or two. "You learn that from the elders of your tribe?" She teased, remembering the usual source of his survival skills.  
  
"I may have lived on a planet so humid that it makes Florida summers feel dry, but my people didn't forget the stories of the cold days on Earth. We learned how to keep warm and alive in a blizzard, though we didn't get to practice that much."  
  
"Your sister was more traditional, right?"  
  
"She was so interested in the past that she left home to study archeology on Earth." Chakotay confirmed. "Then she fell in love and got married and had babies and kept digging in the dirt."  
  
"Think she's still doing it?"  
  
"Till the day she dies or the grant money runs out."  
  
B'Elanna nodded, fetched a granola bar, broke it in half, handed the larger part to Chakotay and sat on one of the benches. "Merry Christmas." He joined her with a blanket. They curled up together and stared out at a night of alien ice and moonlight.  
  
The conversation waned, and they simply enjoyed each other's warmth and presence. At midnight, she stirred. "We should sing, or something. It'll keep us awake."  
  
"Sing?"  
  
"When I was a little girl, before my father left we celebrated Christmas and Three Kings. We went to Mass and watched la Posada and made luminaries and sang Christmas carols. I remember the songs best."  
  
"What was your favorite?" He asked, enjoying the effect of moonlight on her skin.  
  
"Winter Wonderland." She said. "It's this silly little carol about building snowmen and walking around, but I always liked it."  
  
"I always liked Let It Snow." Chakotay offered reflectively. "It's about staying inside by the fire with the one you love."  
  
B'Elanna flushed. "Sing it for me?"  
  
So he quietly serenaded her, conveniently forgetting that the music was stored in the computer databanks to play any time at all.  
  
At the end, he leaned forward and kissed her lightly. She blinked.  
  
"It's the most wonderful time of the year." He supplied. "Shame to waste all this ambiance."  
  
"Ambiance?" The unromantic B'Elanna demanded. "What ambiance? It's freezing, we're in a metal box at the bottom of a ravine, it's Christmas Eve and our dinner was freeze dried poison powder."  
  
"But we're together, with absolute privacy, with a blanket and shelter inside and moonlight and snow outside."  
  
"I never took you for that kind of romantic." She said. "I mean, you joined the Maquis and you made it to Captain and you believed in their cause, and that showed a romantic streak, I mean who else would find under such impossible odds? But I never thought that you would be moved by moonlight and privacy."  
  
He laughed. "If you're so practical, why did you join the romantic Maquis fools?"  
  
"You made me believe in your dream. You were so passionate about the injustice of Cardassia and the colonies that you made me believe I could make a difference in someone's life."  
  
He breathed and cuddled her to his side, feeling that faith like that was a gift.  
  
She leaned over and kissed him. It was his turn to blink at her. "The mistletoe." She explained. "I think someone was trying to get revenge on you for confiscating it. Or maybe someone had booked the shuttle for a rendezvous tonight." She laughed, and pointed up. Sure enough, a sprig of mistletoe identical to Chakotay's confiscated specimen hung directly above their heads.  
  
"Like I said, ambiance. Moonlight and mistletoe and a pretty girl." Their third kiss lasted longer and raised the shuttle temperature a full degree.  
  
She pulled away to meet his eyes. "Chakotay, I want this, but only if it's real. I want to be able to look at you tomorrow and the next day and every day for the next seventy years. ." She blushed, wondering why she sounded like an inexperienced virgin. "That didn't come out right. What I mean is, you're my best friend and we're responsible adults. I could do a roll in the hay, but you can't. You'd lose your self-respect, or your respect for me, or some combination thereof and that would be a disaster. So if this is some crazy romantic impulse that you're going to regret the second the hormones go away--"  
  
He stopped her speech with his lips. "It's not an impulse." He said. "I've wanted to kiss you for a long time."  
  
She laughed breathlessly, no longer caring whether he had understood her or not. "You have?"  
  
He nodded, and kissed her again.  
  
"Since when?" She demanded.  
  
"Since I saw you being fierce and vulnerable fighting that Cardassian in the shuttle bay. Since the Caretaker took you. Since you looked like an angel in the snow today."  
  
She rewarded his answer with another kiss. "Why did it take you so long?" She demanded.  
  
"I was your Captain. There's no honor in taking advantage of your subordinate."  
  
B'Elanna protested. "This subordinate was totally willing. And you and Seska were an item."  
  
"She wasn't really a subordinate. On the ship, sure. But she worked Maquis Intel for years before coming into the field with us. Besides, I'm older than you are."  
  
"Do you know how ridiculous you sound?" She demanded.  
  
"Must be because there's all this blood singing in my head. I can't think."  
  
"Me neither." She laughed. He kissed her again and she felt dizzy. Of course, at that moment an alarm trilled, informing them that the storm had broken temporarily. It would return with greater force in a short time, but the proverbial eye of the hurricane was directly above them.  
  
Amorous activities would have to wait. B'Elanna coaxed the engine to life, while Chakotay maneuvered the shuttle straight into the air. Tense and motionless, B'Elanna waited until they broke free of the planet's atmosphere. She gasped. "I wasn't sure it would work."  
  
"Add it to the list of Christmas miracles." Chakotay told her, as she cranked up the heat on the environmental controls and ordered a hot drink from the replicator.  
  
She smiled. "What else is on the list?"  
  
"Going chronologically or in order of importance?"  
  
"Importance."  
  
"I think you rank number one, the kisses tie with the conversation we've had for number two, finding the shuttle undamaged after its fall, and taking off successfully follow. Landing the shuttle without crashing it, and finding the dilithium in good condition round out the list."  
  
She grinned. "Can't argue with that." She kissed his tattoo, his temple, and then his forehead. "You forgot about the mistletoe."  
  
He laughed.  
  
"Merry Christmas, Chakotay."  
  
"Merry Christmas B'Elanna." He kissed her lips, and let the autopilot take the shuttle to the Voyager rendezvous. 


End file.
